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standing on the shoulders of those who've built the kit before me, I've scraped thin the fuselage sides and have attached the resin cockpit side walls to the fuselage contrary to the build recommendation suggested by PCM of building the cockpit and installing it to the fuselage. a test fit shows it's possible to slip the cockpit floor into the assembled fuselage from the wing opening. As well, the radiator relief in the wing was sanded to a see through thickness as well as the bottom of the floor of the cockpit to allow fitment of the wing to the fuselage. Work is going slower than usual due to having my 6 year old granddaughter visiting for the last couple of weeks allowing for about an hour or two of bench time each night after tucking her in. progress...slow but, progress Thanks for looking

It has been fixed.

Hi gents I am happy to share with you my last build . this is the Tam’s E converted to the G version ..as I didn’t want to spend too much money on AF market sets ( but little bit though ), I sratchbuilt the main components, namely the chin pod, the vertical fin antenna, the belly reinforcement strap... I focused the main improvements in the cockpit , I scratbuilt the rear bulkheads as well the side walls , I used the "Redfox" IP and console sets, however dedicated to the Revell kit . I admit that I naively thought that they only needed a few adjustments, but obviously , they are not intended for the Tamiya kit , I struggled a bit to adapt the aft IP.. indeed it seems that the Revell IP are oversized compared to the Tam's kit, well the result is not so bad . Some wires into the gear bays as well on the legs ... the seats are from " quickboost " , decals are from " speed hunter graphic ", outerwing sections are from Isracast ....... hope you 'll like her bad smile ... was it a cool "trip " ?? I struggled a bit sometime , but .... not so bad .... so as I usually say ............enjoy ..........or not cheers Alain pictures were taken outdoor pictures indoor

Welcome back. I'm ready to call the riveting done. \ I probably could have omitted many of the rivet decals. I don't want them all to show, and I did skip some. The ones that will show will be in areas where the crew have frequented. But I thought I would use a lot of the set anyway. You'll notice a few spots where the paint has been removed in dots and odd places. I reckon this comes from two causes. A: I sand it smooth and the paint may have been very thin. And B: The acids in Mr. Mark Softer ate through the thinned paint. Of course, decals don't stay attached to places where paint has been removed. Luckily it mostly happened on the underside. Thanks for looking!

Okay, this is what I was talking about with the right engine. The only way the firewall part can slot into the nacelle is at a decent rotational angle. See here: When I tried to put the engine on, I got to about here before *something* interfered and things came to a halt. It looked like one side of the cowl was hitting the bottom of the wing due to the rotated angle of the engine. It was clear, however, that the keying of the stub on the firewall piece was preventing the rotation of the engine to the point where it would fit nicely. Sooooo, channeling the subtlety that embodied my recent P-38 build, I got out my trusty exacto blade and made a minor adjustment. Aaaand.... Ta da! Way more better. I don't know... I don't *think* this one is on me. I think I got all the right parts in the right places, so I'm very curious to hear the progress and experience of others as they move through the engine install. Last night I finally fit the control surfaces and they went on without fuss. I also finished the exhaust on the right engine and then glued both engines to the wing. Once I get the cowl/wing/nacelle joins cleaned up, I'll glue on the wings, then it's off to the paint booth. Currently, with probably 90% of the parts in place, the nose sits firmly on the wheel, but there is not so much weight on the dime store nose gear assembly that it's at any real risk of falling on its tail. The only major assembly left to put in place that's aft of the CG is the turret, so I'm pretty confident it won't be a tail squatter.

Hi all, As I've suspended the build of the Phonix C.I, I thought I'd started an easier build. The 'Wingnut Wings' model of the Hansa-Brandenburg W12, Serial No.1184 (C3MG) as flown by Fl.Mt. Urban and Lt. Ehrhardt of C-Staffel, Zeebrugge, during December 1917. This aircraft was part of a three aircraft patrol that shot down the British Naval airship C27, killing all five of the crew, Mike

The ship's boats are finished. My research did not turn up any firm answer as to what color they were painted. During the ship's first wartime cruise the boats had dark green hulls with red interiors. At least some of the boats were replaced when the Constitution refitted in the Boston Navy Yard prior to her second cruise. Primary source documents confirm that the ship had 8 boats when she departed for her second wartime cruise under Commodore William Bainbridge. Unfortunately the kit only supplies 7 boats and some those are likely the incorrect types; for example the 23 foot cutters that are supplied by the kit had been replaced by 23 foot whale boats when the ship sailed under Bainbridge. Scratch building boats would have been a massive undertaking and I did not want to buy any more aftermarket stuff, so I went with the boats provided by the kit. As I could not find any firm information as to what color the boats were painted during the Constitution's second cruise I decided to paint them the same colors the boats were during the ship's first cruise. Below are the results! The boats are ready for painting. You can see that the smallest boat does not have any scratch building done to it; it will be stowed upside down and I opted not to do extra work that would not be seen. All painted and touched up where required. The four boats that were stored amidships have been set in place. I will glue them down in the order that makes securing them easiest. The kit instructions have the boats secured by simply tying off a line on an eyebolt at deck level, throwing the line over the boat and securing it on the eyebolt on the opposite side. Actually, the securing lines were somewhat more complex than that and I am going to try to replicate them - try being the operative word here. The boats certainly add a splash of color to the spar deck!

Final preparations for production, towards the end of next week our new model will be available at 1:32 Ki-32 "Mary" (Army Type 98 Light Bomber), a numerous but undeservedly little-known aircraft of the initial period of World War II. I continue to work no matter what.

Well, at least I've now achieved the criteria for this group build: We have the nose art! I've done some chipping and attempted to give the paint work that 'rained on' look, but after my Kotare Spitfire, which I felt I overweathered, I'm nervous of throwing too much at this one - even though the photographs that exist (like at the start of this thread) do show the bird to be pretty beat up. I can't work on it over the weekend (my other hobby - live music is on the menu) so I'll ponder further!

Just got done with a few hours of screen time and corrected the length of the launch tower rail, I have to move the box with pipes up near the end a little more and I'm going to to split the rail into 2 pieces as it has become too long to fit in my printer, no big deal though... fingers crossed !!! Pat

No problem, Thomaz. Lots of good photos. All the masks off, except for the windscreen. Some small touch up areas. MRP isn't conducive to brush painting, I guess I'll have to put some in a container and allow it to start curing to thicken it up for brush painting. Suggestions welcome. I'm waiting on a set of 1manarmy stencil masks to arrive. They're somewhere between Hannants and here. Hopefully they get here sooner than later.

Ok both wings have been attached. Large 3d prints are not for the faint of heart. Although the design is really tight, printing multiple parts in this large size leads to some warpage and shinkage. Translation.... not everything lines up and fits the way you would hope. So I have installed alignment pins and have shoved everything together using lots of epoxy. Next, just the slightest smear of Bondo to level it all out. After some rough sanding another round of filler. Same issues on the underside. And why not glue in the aft weapons bay. It ain't pretty, but it will be solid. Thanks, Dan

Dress rehearsal … with thumbnail palette … and in natural habitat

OK, looks goofy, but it's the process I used on the Revelamyastang so I'm going with it again. It's not meant to show thru as much as eliminate surface uniformity. We'll see. Silvers tomorrow.

Hi all, This is the 1:32nd scale ‘Copper State Models’ model of Bristol Scout C, Serial number 1260 of No.5 Wing (RNAS), operating from Dover as part of Home Defence in 1916. As usual, a fully detailed build log, which includes all materials, modifications, rigging etc for this build can be downloaded from the 'Logs' page on my site. https://mikesww1aircraftmodels.com/ Thanks for your comments and support throughout this build, Mike

Aloha, gents As per everyone's previous comments, the formation light on the wing tips were indeed a blue lens illuminated by a white light bulb, as opposed to a blue bulb and a clear cover. Here's some refs: The relevant page out of the Detail & Scale F4U book by Bert Kinzey. This is KD 431, an unrestored FG-1D in original colors that currently resides in Yeovilton, as you can see it's a blue lens cover. Page out of @Dana Bell's book, obviously you can't really tell the color in this photo but the formation light is clearly tinted as opposed to the transparent cover on the recognition light above it. Another B&W shot but again, the formation light cover is undoubtedly tinted. Let's zoom into that last one. And finally some period color showing it was definitely blue. HTH, Jay! - Thomaz

I love the kit! I've waited for it since it was announced YEARS ago. I does though, need improvement in a few areas. The propeller is off a bit in blade shape and size, and the hub is completely wrong. Resin aftermarket needed here. The cockpit can use some help with a bit more detail. Quinta decals would be nice here. The rear gunner's ring and mount are lacking in detail. The .30 cal doesn't have an ammo box mount. A replacement twin .30 cal mount would be a nice option. Quite a few TBD's carried these at Midway. I'm sure someone will do replacement resin wheels. The tape and fit has gone well so far.

Spent the morning going down a rabbit hole here at the ol’ homestead. Let me explain. I was sick of detail painting in the cockpits and started investigating the modifications I’ll need to make to the cowling. Was studying the intake at the top and realized it needs some work. As I was counting the grills (Infinity has 9, the real deal 7), I stumbled across this picture in ye olde personal archives. It’s a Helldiver on the USS Bunker Hill launching for the first missions of the Tokyo Raids on February 16, 1945. Check out the yellow nose on the Helldiver and Avenger. The deck crew are bundled up against the elements. It was cold. And snowing. The fleet sailed up to within 50NM of the Japanese coast and launched a 2-day series of raids over Tokyo. Part of a diversionary effort before landing on Iwo Jima. Crazy to think about, and arguably you’ve lost the war if a a fleet can park itself off your coast and proceed to strike at will. If you listen to Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcasts, he’s got a great series about the rise and fall of Imperial Japan. Well worth a listen. Here’s a really good write-up about the strikes: https://mighty90.com/Operation_JAMBOREE.html Also a fascinating bit about electronic warfare and jamming by Avengers to cover the inbound strikes here (will have to read some more on that, as I sure as heck didn’t know about EW gear in TBMs!) http://www.cv6.org/1945/tokyo/ I recently read James Scott’s “Black Snow” about LeMay and the firebombing of Tokyo. He argues (and I agree with him) that the reason Gen Hansell was fired and replaced by Curt LeMay was due to the USN outperforming the vaunted new B-29s. Tough to argue for an independent Air Force if a strategic bombing can’t match tac-air. LeMay was sent in to prove a point… don’t want to rehash the whole inter-service rivalry bit, but that whole last year of the war in the Pacific is fascinating to me (hence the rabbit hole). Also finding it very hard not to change plans and make GSB -4 with a yellow nose…! Anyway, thought I’d share. Pics of the build once I’m done being distracted with old-timey photos… -Peter

Good news, folks. A modeller in a French forum saw my call for help and posted the required photograph. I’ll need some psychological prep before dealing with the scarf. In the mean time, the eyes are done Thank you all for your concern, Cheers, Quang

Well by god - the cover will be translucent blue, and the bulb will be shiny white in a silver tub! Pretty cool to be part of LSP BTW. Thanks folks!

It does appear to have a blue tint Jay (FG-1D). https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2022/01/16/chance-vought-f4u-goodyear-fg-1d-corsair-restoration-walk-around-part-ii/ HTH Derek

I fully concur with your assessment, amigo. The more primary sources are unearthed the more we realize how widespread the use of RLM 70/71 was right up to the very end, making a lot of the pontificating about "late war" greens over the last few decades seem pretty silly in hindsight.

Thank you for everyone's comments !!! I'm glad I haven't been able to print yey, I just realized that I made a qiute large error on the launch tower as far as the length of it, the attached photo of the real BOMARC compared to my 3D rendering you can see the difference of the length of the tower in relation to the leading edge of the wing, the end of the tower is much higher than where I have rendered it .... That's what happens when working with no dimensions of the tower, but it should be an easy fix !!! Pat

1/32 and 1/48 F-16 Centerline Pylon in progress.....

Sammelmitteilung Nr. 3 (Dec, 1944): Verwendung von Lacken in überholten Sichtschutz - Farbtöne bei Metallflugzeugen: Az. 70 K 10.11 Die Rohstofflage verbietet die Verachröttung von hochwertigen Lacken mit überholten Sichtschutzfarbtönen. Daher wird festgelegt, daß Bestände an a) Flw. 7109 und 7122 in den Farbtönen 70, 71 und 74 als Innenlacke für Führerräume anstelle des Farbtons 66 aufgebraucht werden. Translation: Use of obsolete shades of camouflage paint for metal aircraft: Ref. 70 K 10.11 The raw material situation prohibits the destruction of high-quality paints with obsolete camouflage shades. It is therefore specified that stocks of a) Flw. 7109 and 7122 in shades 70, 71 and 74 are to be used up as interior paints for the cockpit instead of shade 66. More here: https://www.luftwaffe-research-group.com/threads/sammelmitteilung-nr-3-dec-1944-part-3.33434/ Cheers, Damian

That's exactly what I'm doing. I'm taking a Trumpeter kit and turning it into a Hasegawa molding! Looking at the pillowed look, I get the feeling that it may been unintentional on Infinity's part. It looks a lot like the Italeri F-86 wings and I've read that the pillowed look on those wings were a result of insufficient molding pressure? Yes, it's a very sharp and revealing photo and I was struck by the integrity of the fuselage panels compared to what is presented in the Infinity moldings. It gave me the idea to try something different with this build than I normally do. Cuz I'm the guy who is usually ADDING rivets to my aircraft! Yeah, it's tiresome but I'm liking the result so I'll try to keep going! The BSI works really well... I think you'll like it Kevin! Jumping over to the engine, I've painted the components separately. The main shades were airbrushed and then details were picked out with brush painting. The parts were covered with a clear gloss, given a pastel wash and then sealed with a flat coat. Before I assemble the engine, I use short strands of lead wire for the ignition wires. These will be painted brown and then oriented to the back of the cylinders. Since the view is blocked, I won't go through the trouble of connecting the terminal ends to the ignition ring in the rear of the engine. The engine components are glued together. It took a bit of futzing to get the exhaust tubing to attach to the back of the cylinders but the glue joints were soft enough to gently adjust the stems to fit. I want to check the position of the engine to the fuselage. It looks ok so far but care will be need to taken when gluing the engine in place since orientation is not rock solid. I plan on gluing the engine after the painting stage. The engine cowling attaches to the bottom of the fuselage so I checked that fit as well. Luckily, the exhaust stubs exit in the correct location. The cowling opening is very big so there is a nice view into the engine compartment from the front.

Would definitely prefer a 32nd scale Hustler, what are peoples thoughts on one of those? Regards. Andy

That's because it is flat (or non-specular in BuAer speak) sea blue, OBG. It's just shaded in black on the original drawing but if you look closely it says "non-specular sea-blue shaded area". If I had to bet on it, I'd say they did keep the antiglare on later Corsairs as well, the last thing you need in an aerial combat situation is being blinded by your own airplane.

I’d bet these lights were pretty much universal across The Nav for a while, at least on the tactical side.

Hey, fellas @denders first off, apologies for the thread drift, I don't mean to hijack your WIP! We can start a new thread about the F4U-1D antiglare panel in the Aviation section, if everyone prefers. For the record, I also find the antiglare panel pretty fugly. @LSP_Kevin yes, I believe a simple coat of matte varnish over the GSB is sufficient to create the effect, it is actually pretty subtle IRL, especially once the plane is operational and the glossy paint starts getting a little beat up and closer in reflectivity to the non-specular sea blue on the antiglare panel. @MikeMaben no idea on the date of the drawing, sorry dude. Like I said, it was a pretty subtle effect visually speaking, unless it was under harsh lighting. Found some more examples where it's pretty stark, but I found just as many or maybe even more where you can't tell the difference between specular and non-specular sea blues at all. On the photo you posted from the Wasp, I can just make out a very faint 'line' of demarcation between spec and non-spec on the cowling, of course the paint on this bird is pretty abraded, there's even some chipping which was rare since GSB was such a sturdy paint. Here's some more photos where you can clearly tell the antiglare panel. You can see a clear line of demarcation between the gloss and matte sea blues below the windscreen here. Here's one where you have to be paying attention to see the non-spec sea blue, but if you look closely you'll notice the paint is quite reflective aka glossy all over the plane except on the antiglare panel. Here's some period color, harsh Pacific island sun, easy to see the antiglare panel here. On most photos of -1D's under normal lighting conditions i.e. not harsh bright sunlight, you can barely tell the difference as you can see in this period color photo. The only way to really tell is by comparing the specularity (reflectivity) of the paint on the antiglare panel with the rest of the plane. It's one of those 'once you see it you can't un-see it' kind of things, I guess. Voilà, now back to your regularly scheduled programming, folks! - Thomaz

I hope more 1/32 stuff will follow https://www.facebook.com/ThunderModel/

Tommy over at his Tailhook site opines that yer formation lights have a blue lens covering the bulb. A transparent blue lens coupled with a lunar white (essentially soft white) bulb would result in a light that put off a comfortable blue glow when lit rather than a harsh, bright light that might impact night vision if stared at for too long. Makes sense to me, so I vote for transparent blue lenses.

Nice to see another one of these kits being built. I've got the Strike Valkyrie as previously mentioned and will be adding lights to mine. Will you be lighting your build? For those interested, this pic might give you a better idea of the size of this kit. Here's a bottle of Tamiya paint inside the engine bell.

Hey Dave, that smooth paint job is smooooooth. Just wanted to drop a quick reminder that the dash 1D's actually had a non-specular sea blue antiglare panel. Here's the original drawing from Vought. Here's what it looked like on an operational wartime bird. This isn't the crispest photo but you can just make out the 'line' between the gloss and matte sea blues on this plane. Here's what it looked like factory-fresh, pardon the tiny image. Here's a factory-fresh -1D in the wind tunnel at NACA, real easy to make out the distinction between specular and non-specular in these due to the overhead lighting. And finally, here's what it looks like on a modern-day warbird under the glare of the midday sun. Keep up the great work! Cheers, -Thomaz

@Antonio Argudo : Thanks Antonio, I'd rather the 2 of us see this mistake now than at the end of this wip! Come on, a third beer! Today it's the turn of the upper crosses. This morning I was very confident about fitting the masks, because yesterday everything went so well. But it didn't! I don't know why, but I sweated blood putting on the 1st mask, and even more so putting on the 4 corner masks. Maybe it's because they're so small... It must have taken me about 1 hour to set up the damn mask set! As for the rest, I followed @Thunnus advice by placing a few protectors at the end of the branches of the crosses, so I hardly had to make any alterations. The mask "professionals" must be laughing when they read this, but I can assure you that it's far from easy for a young Padawan beginner like me! So for the moment, all's well, and I hope it stays that way! This technique of using masks to replace decals is what I call "a risky bet", because if you make a mistake (placement, size, color, paint dilution, misalignment with rivet lines), then everything's ruined and you have to start all over again.

Onwards... While pondering the landing lights, I cracked on with other stuff. Before I go any further - I know the cockpit framing is supposed to be silver, ditto wheel bays. Regular viewers will know I prefer a warbird feel - at some stage, this one has had an interior repaint. Cockpit tub built up. I've added fuel, oil, hydraulic and control lever lines, canopy latch (top of left upper frame), Sutton harness release (under right upper frame),the fuel selector transfer tube (you can just see it poking up above the left rudder pedal in the first pic), de-icing fluid filler cap, pump and one of the lines (second line omitted, as it'd be completely invisible anyway), a suggestion of the aileron control chains on the stick, the top part of which was moved to match the intended aileron position, a few PE pieces (e.g. the gear selector surround and elevator trim chain), the leather anti-chafing strap on the seat, and HGW belts. Lagging/texture on the large coolant pipe is a cigarette paper, just as an experiment. I also added a couple of generic decals to the sight to break up the blackness of it, but they don't really stick out in the pics (precisely none of this will be readily visible once the fuselage goes together, but hey ho). Instrument panel is by Yahu: The escape hatch received a cut-down PE piece (the white placard), an Airscale decal (the black placard) and the kit decal for open/close and instruction stencils; I painted the other bits: What do you know? It still fits. The extra bulkhead suggests the rear face of the reserve fuel tank, which is visible through the hole in the panel. Without it, the fuel lines (just visible to the left of the added piece) just end in mid-air. Fuselage buttoned up: Revell have done a good job with the fit - it only needed a tiny smear of filler here and there, caused more by me than them! Other pieces painted ready for next steps: More later - thanks for looking! Sepp

Aft cockpit bulkhead is completed. As mentioned above, I removed the molded-on wiring and A/C ducts. Replaced them with lead wire and the 3D printed parts that included the A/C outlets and fabric covers missing from the kit. The 3D part also has the single, smaller helmet tracking sensor that is fitted to the E model (earlier models had two larger sized sensors at each crew position). Also added Quinta decals for the circuit breaker panels. Last step was to add some pastels to replicate a bit of dust. Once installed, I'll bend the lead wires into their final position. That's it for today, thanks for looking.

The thing is difficult to photograph... but I hope you get the idea despite the rather bad photos!

Rubber tires in the 21st century are NOT the same as the vinyl tires of yore. The rubber tires on my GWH P-40B (2022)

I spent a fair amount of time on this guy's uniform yesterday.

Mystery solved. You found her.

I'd definitely start with 'On The Bench' (and not just because our Kevin has been on it a few times!) They are three Aussies in Melbourne and the show is well grooved - it's the one that's been on the longest - it's up to episode 160+ now... Here's a handy listing with them all on https://modelpodcasts.com/ The ones I listen to are: On The Bench, as above, Plastic Posse Podcast, which is a mixture of UK and US modellers and is a fun show - the guys on it obviously are mates and it shows. The Scale Model Podcast is a pretty straight ahead factual show, run by a couple of Canadians. Plastic Model Mojo is another pretty straight ahead show - but presented by a couple of real characters - Kentucky Dave and Mike - with a feature of their show being their description of what their 'modelling fluid' (i.e. alcoholic beverage) is each time! Model Geeks is another pretty general show (news, interviews, round-table discussions), but again, with enjoyable hosts. Sprue Cutters Union is a bit different in tone. (and not in a bad way.) They are the only show that doesn't bleep out swearing, for instance! They are quite hard-hitting and don't pull their punches if they think a kit or product isn't up to snuff. They also have some very interesting interviews about subjects that maybe other podcasts don't tackle. My personal favourite was when they had Martin Drayton on and discussed with him what it was like being an avid modeller who isn't a white middle aged male.. The only downside is that they are not good at editing! Their average episode length is 3 to 3.5 hours - which is a lot of time invested! 'Just Making Conversation' is two UK modellers and it is quite unlike any of the others - a bit more whimsical and eccentric - and really enjoyable! There's a lot to listen to there! My policy is to listen whilst I'm modelling - it helps with the mojo and fits with what I'm doing. Apologies Kevin for the thread drift - feel free to move this reply to be its own subject..

Oh! Back to the wingtip: It appears that the infallible Tamiya may have missed this little tidbit because their kit doesn’t seem to show the obvious break on the wing tip where the fabric would start. Am I wrong in this? Will Jay be the only builder in the entire modeling universe to get this right?

For that matter, I’m convinced that some of those ad hoc schemes with “late war” greens were nothing but usage of old stocks of RLM 70/71.

I used MRP "Sea Blue FS35042 - ANA607" on this -4 Corsair.

Thank you TAG for your compliments, I really appreciate them. Let's just say that when it comes to masks, I've got beginner's luck! "Me" in my striped shirt as I enter the model room to set up the masks. "The mask set" in a black T-Shirt that's waiting for me and that's going to give me a hard time...

It blue! Now to remove the masking around the nose to re-mask for the small '183' there, on the tail, and on the LG doors.

Its been since end of Jan since I've posted any updates on this project. Most of the time was spent waiting for a new spray booth, and parts ordered from Germany....spare track link brackets for the turret and a tow cable set. Not sure why but the items from Germany could only be shipped via seaborne shipping container... took months to arrive. Anyway finally got the camo on... here are some pics. She's sitting on a wooden block under the chassis, just to save some wear on the suspension. Finally, shout out to PACE Enterprises for their amazing spray booth. Has the most powerful exhaust fan I've ever seen in a booth, works great! So glad I purchased it. Just big enough to fit this beast in it. On to fitting of pioneer tools, unit markings, weathering, etc etc. Having loads of fun with this build.' Cheers! Dave/Ironman1945 PS: Only 88 days until the start of the 2023 NFL season!

I painted mine for the lack of a suitable decal, and it really is just a couple of dots of paint: But my modelling mantra is representation over replication, and those with more exacting standards may find this insufficient. Kev

Finally got to the point were the basic superstructure is together and base color is on. She's a heavy beast, a lot heavier than my M-51! On to adding/painting the details (tow cables, pioneer tools, etc) then camo colors and weathering. Did take her out for a spin on the front lawn. What a hoot driving her around! Loads of fun! Cheers and Go Bengals! Dave/Ironman1945